GMC Yukon XL Normal Oil Usage?

Comments

Thanks but after the shenanigans at the dealer and all the problems everyone is having with their engines in about every GM forum I decided to trade in the "normal" Yukon. When I asked the service manager about the overservicing of my vehicle he told me that I checked the oil wrong. He states, "You cannot check the oil when it has sat for an hour....due to the oil passages being so small....at this point I shut down. He suggested I run the truck to operatinb temp and then wait 15 minutes. Wouldn't you know it was the same level! Go figure. I then asked him what overservicing a vehicle could do to the engine. He states "No problem. These engines can operate with one qt of oil extra just fine without any problems." He even stated, "They are built to tight tolerances?" Really?? I almost thought I was talking to a janitor.

I guess that is why there is a big bold statement to the effect of "operating an engine with too much or too little oil can cause damage......" in the Operators Manual. The more I think about it they probably put thicker oil in there as well to skew the test even more.

It is because of the dealership and the numerous problems across the web concerning oil consumption problems that I traded my Yukon XL in for a 2012 Ford Expedition EL.

I guess I gave my "normal" oil consumption vehicle to someone else. I feel GM knows there is a problem and they are trying to band aid fix these vehicles; coupled with my local service department trying to "play me" it was time to say bye to the GM brand for good. To make matters worse I now have learned that there are a few others that have had the overservice trick done to them at the beginning of this "oil consumption" test. If anyone gets one thing out of this...CHECK YOUR OIL LEVEL BEFORE YOU LEAVE AND MARK IT (a small scratch works well) AND LET THE SERVICE MANAGER KNOW AND WITNESS IT. MIGHT EVEN WANT TO START NEW AT ANOTHER SERVICE DEPARTMENT.

From a once loyal 30 year hardcore GM owner....now a new Ford owner.

Kevin

BTW. As far as the door actuators as posted previously by another member: I replaced three separate door lock actuators and the last one was out when I traded the vehicle in. Also, the side body molding warps rather easily and starts to curl up and eventually starts debonding and cannot be fixed. It is a buy new, paint and replace item.

LASTLY. If anyone lives in the Fort Worth area avoid the GMC Service Department in Grapevine, TX.

Wow... glad I did a search on this problem. I am going through the same issue on my Yukon XL 07. I have been to the dealer once per month for the last 5-6 months over the oil light. What a nightmare. Got the 'ol run the consumption test, then put the deflector plate on it.. had to pay the $200 deductable for my extended insurance, then pow... 3 weeks later there is that light again. Called the dealer tonight and said bring it in tomorrow. Service mgr was obviously exasperated. Reality is that there is a known problem, the methods to remedy arent fixing the problem and GM knows it.

plsfixmyyukon, I would try to get your $200 back. If your vehicle has under 100K of miles there should not be a charge for the drive train. If it is over 100K miles then GM wont cover anyways. It is a shame that we have all had to go through this. It took me 30-40 trips to the dealer with all the fixes they tried, they could have just put a new engine in and it would have been less expensive. I has the PVC replaced, clean the valve covers with a new deflector plate, then it was clean the valley, then replace the both heads, then after that replaced the Pistons, Rings, Rods and bearings. Hey finally it does not use but about 1qt every oil change which is about normal. Now I do not understand why this is a known issue and they require a good longer term GM buyer to waste so many trips in and use their gas and there time to fix something that would be so easy to just bring it in for one oil consumption test then if it fails, replace the engine.

I find it funny that GM actually told me that they could not be certain that if the engine was replaced that it would stop the oil usage issue. So funny. I guess they have no confidence in their engine department to make a good engine that does not use oil. Seems a little strange. GM is just waiting this out to get all these vehicle over 100 miles or 5 years which is this year (2012) then they will not have to worry about it.

I figure with all the extra oil I had to use and my time that I wasted coming in to the dealership, I spent about $5-7 K of my own money and lost time because of this issue. I wonder if a class action suit would get the engines replaced and quit wasting the GM customers time. But then the government owns them so what does it matter.

I just hope everybody that reads this realizes you can make a difference in the future. I know I will...I will NEVER buy another GM product as long as I'm alive. My MANY years of driving Suburbans (Yukon XL, Yukon, Tahoes, etc.) since 1972 (often had 2 at a time...sort of the his/hers thing...is OVER! The USA should have NEVER bailed out ANY of the car companies!

I hope your visit goes well today; if we can look into this further with you, please email socialmedia@gm.com with the following information: your name/Edmunds username, phone and address, the last 8 digits of your VIN and current mileage, and the name of your dealership.

I'm sorry to hear about the drawn-out repair process you have been through; I'm sure that that wasn't convenient and got frustrating for you. It looks as though after all of the work that has gone in to your Yukon that the oil consumption concern you had had was resolved? How is everything running?

Wow, why did I think maybe just maybe my 2007 Tahoe with 46,000 miles would not start to use oil like all these other people are going through. Well it has now I guess I will have to fight with Gm to get this problem fixed. This is just going to be a big hassle and a big waste of time.

Have you had an oil consumption test done on your Tahoe at this point? If you decided to work with us, this would be the first step in our process of determining what's going on with your Tahoe.

We're happy to work with you through this process, as well. Please contact us at socialmedia@gm.com with more information (include your name/Edmunds username, phone and address, the last 8 of your VIN and current mileage, and the name of your dealership). Regards, Sarah GM Customer Service

Recently, my 2008 Yukon 5.3L (with 79,000 miles) began misfiring, and "service traction control" and "service stabilitrak" popped up on dash. I immediately limped over to my dealer. The car was definitely misfiring and shifting very hard. After 3 days (4 hours of diagnosis)???, the dealer explained that I was down 4 quarts of oil (within 3,000 miles), and claimes that they need to replace the deflector plate and de-carbonize the engine at a cost of $1,200. First of all, how is this not covered under the 100,000 mile warranty??? and how does oil consumption have anything to do with stabilitrak and traction control? I feel like I'm getting ripped off, and I'm in for a lot more headaches and wasted trips to the dealer. Can anyone shed some light on this?. Thanks.

Below my signature, I have included a list of covered components for the 2008 GMC warranty. We'd be happy to look into this situation further with you if you wanted to send the following information to socialmedia@gm.com: your name/Edmunds username, phone and address, the last 8 of your VIN and current mileage, and the name of your involved dealership. Regards, Sarah GM Customer Service

My 2007 Yukon is doing the same thing. I took it and they did some work on the engine while I had just passed my manufacture warranty by one month. Good thing is that they still goodwill the job and was not charged. Great huhn? Not really because months later it still did the same thing, burned about 2 qts. in 2000 miles. Then I found out that it is a three step process in which the first two never fixes the issue until the third comes along. The change of the pistons and a little tweak here and there. Now they want me to pay half on step two. The average of this job comes to be around $6000. It will cost me $3000 to have the same issue in months this should be a recall on the engine. I have called GMC customer service but they have yet to return my call. I have two GMC vehicles and this issue is making me look into other manufactures for future purchase in cars. The sad thing is that I a only 28 years old. I have a lot of cars to purchase in my life to come. Hopefully:,)

able29luis, I'm sorry that you had not received a call back from us at the time of your post; were you assigned a case number? We can check into this if you were to send the Service Request Number (71-**********) or the last 8 of your VIN to socialmedia@gm.com

If it has the 5.3L V-8 you are certianly not alone. My 2008 did it after just 52,000 miles. GM refused to acknowledge any kind of problem and kept sening me back for oil changes. After i threatened legal action they replaced all pistons, connecting rods and rings. They know about the problem, they just know that the cost to correct would break them.

I've since advised all of my colleagues and extended family to avoide GM products. We've always been only a GM family. We've purchased 3 brand new our selves and our relative have purchased many more. Venture, Aveo, Uplander, Cobalt, Saturn just in the past few years! That's over and GM can do as McCain once suggested, "Blame yourself!"

Since around November, I have been having this oil consumption issue and had worked done to my GMC Yukon. It has been worked on once and my next job will cost me a lot. I've talked with GMC personnel but they have been extending this issue too long. I wonder if it is to find a way to neglect paying or assisting me with this big problem and headache this oil burning issue has given me.

They are calling me every other day to keep me up to date, but it should not be dragged this long. What should I do next? Anyone have any good advise?

Not sure what the scope of GMC's participation is, but you could try the BBB Auto Line. Or try your local consumer protection agency or lemon lawyer. It's nice that GM went to bat for you when you took this problem to the dealer a month after the warranty expired but it doesn't sound like they fixed it.

Add me to the long list of others with 2007 Yukon XL oil consumption problems. It started at the 30,000 mile mark and since then I have been through 3 oil consumption tests and three rounds of extension mechanical fixes per the GM specs and its still not resolved. I contacted GM customer service and was assigned a case number but all that did was put a rep on the case who called me and the dealer to monitor progress of the attempts to fix it. They declined my only request - which was to extend my warranty in light of the fact that I now have 68,000 miles on the engine and the 5 yr warranty period expires in July 2012. Its going to be tough for me to buy another GM vehicle.

Question for the group...bought a new 2012 Yukon XL and took it to the dealer for it's first oil change. Afterwards (noticed this about a month later - my wife drives this truck) that the oil pressure jumps from 20s to 60+ when I give the truck gas. Harder throttles result in larger jumps...needle moves very quickly then goes back to the 40 range. Is this normal or has anyone else had this issue? Every car/truck I've had in the past the oil pressure never moves, regardless of RPM.

The oil pump is directly driven by the crankshaft, so the faster the engine is runnng, the more oil is being pumped. (higher pressure) Industry guidlines typically call for approximately 10PSI per 1000 rpm. So essentially at idle, anything over 10PSI is additional capacity for the lubrication system. Keep in mind, gages like the one on your dash can have some variance in what they appear to read but your description of the gages operation sounds perfectly normal. Do be sure to always use an oil that meets the dexos1 specification oil with your truck. Your invoice shoud reflect that this is the oil that was used.

So here I am again, 1800 miles since my oil change. Oil light is on again. We have done two of the update bulletins through GM through the service department. This has been going on for two years and 20,000 miles. I am beyond frustrated. You would think at some point in time GM would just authorize the engine to be done. I have the extended warranty through GM-that is what is the classic part! And I still can't get the engine replaced!!!

Looks like I am not alone in having oil consumption issues with my truck! Wish I would have visited this forum before my purchase. 3rd time in for my truck. Guess they installed oil deflector and cleaned the carbon out. Hopefully this will work.

Bigmak, Don't expect that to work. I had the issues for about 9-12month and by the time I was done, they did the oil deflector and cleaning, replaced both complete head, replaced the Piston, Rods, Bearings, and rings. I would have been cheaper to replace the engine the first time. They had to remove the engine twice to do all this. The labor alone probably cost more than what the engine would have cost with only one labor charge. Good luck with your issue. Mine is pretty good but they finally fixed it at 90K on my engine. So a new engine rebuild at 90K. I hope at 120K I don't have issues.

Weird thing was the last time it happened the check engine lite nor the oil lite even came on. Thankfully I just happened to check the oil cause I was going on vacation. I couldnt even see any oil on the dipstick, and I only put about 200 miles on it since I had picked it up from service dept. Truck only has 45,000 on it,. Hopin for the best. good luck to you too!

Just picked up truck from dealer after installation of oil deflector. Got home and just to be sure I checked the oil. Oil was overfilled, was about 1/4 in. above the cross-hatching on the dipstick.Is this bad for my truck and did dealer purposely do this to make consumption not look so bad?

Hello bigmak, Per the 2009 Sierra manual, p. 5-16, "Do not add too much oil. If the enginehas so much oil that the oil level gets above the cross-hatched area that shows the proper operating range, the engine could be damaged."I'm sorry that this occurred - if you would like for us to look into anything, please contact us at socialmedia@gm.com (include your name and contact information ans the last 8 of your VIN). Sarah, GM Customer Service

There is "extra" room by design because people aren't perfect and minor errors do occur. Was the oil level exactly where it should be? Sounds like that is a no. But was it high enough to be a concern, actually, that is also a no.

In the high pressure to turn work at a pace that is way faster than anyone should have to be expected to perform atmosphere of a dealership service department some accuracy issues you are inevitable. The tech simply poured in the entire last bottle of oil instead of stopping with about 1/3rd of it left over. The "dealership" as an entity isn't out to try and sneak something by you as you suggested. This may well be the only thing the tech didn't do perfect while he/she got paid for about 70% of the time that actually gets invested to do the repair.

Looks like I too am a victim of this engine. Yesterday while driving my truck started sputtering and all the "brake system" and "traction control" light came on. The vehicle is sputtering and it appears that the fuel management system is acting up. I have noticed lately that I have been consuming more oil. Im at 97k miles, so I better get it in soon. If they give me the run around at the dealership Im not sure what I can do.

If you insist on being a victim then that's what you will be. Since when did eveyone get the idea that a car is anything other than a machine that requires service and repair on a consistent basis? It's true that much of the blame belongs with any manufacturers or their sales people who attempted to promote their product as not needing as much servicing as the vehicles in the past did. Then another healthy dose of the blame belongs to "consumer experts" who sell their opinions to those who will listen to them as they usually only tell the consumers what the consumers want to hear.

Machines (cars) break and need repaired. An engine that needs oil added at various intervals between services is NORMAL!Those two situations do not make you a victim, they make you a vehicle owner, the only question right now is whether you are a responsible one or not. If I played the consumer expert line and pretended that it isn't normal for an engine to use oil you would be happy to listen to me because it's what you want to hear. Telling you the truth, tactfully or otherwise will likely make this something people who want to make someone else responsible for their problem unhappy.

Now the symptoms you described SUGGEST that your having an issue with one of the wheel speed sensors or it's wiring. That could cause the traction control system to falsely think your experiencing wheel slippage and that could cause the system to reduce the engine power at times. Without feeling the "sputtering" your experiencing frst hand there is no way to know if this is a false traction control issue or if your engine is misfiring. Does your Check Engine light flash, or is it already on?

If this is a misfire and you have a flashing check engine light, you need that car serviced right now, not later. A misfire will in turn damage the catalytic convertor and then you would have an expensive repair on your hands and want to be the victim all over again when you had the ability, as well as the opportunity where you could have done something about it.

Not sure who you are addressing on the Oil Consumption issue, but I respectfully disagree that oil usage of the level that people are seeing is normal. To use over 1 quart every 1000 miles is not normal. As a matter of FACT if you read the manual and GM policy it is way over what is expected. Also, a FACT is that GM has issued a service bulletin about the oil usage in 2007 5.3 L engines. There are very defined steps that have to be taken to verify this but in most cases they end up basically rebuilding part or all of the engine by the time they are done. So, to sum the Oil issue up that most posts on here are addressing, you need to read them and get a clue as to what they are talking about. If it was not an issue the GM Customer relations would not be on here asking to help with the situation that many dealers refuse to acknowledge exists.

As for the Sputtering Engine piece. You are correct it could be many things and people need to either have the knowledge to evaluate it or take it to someone who does.

My 2007 Yukon XL was consuming more than a quart of oil every 2000 miles beginning around the 65,000 mark. After 40,000 of on going oil consumption monitoring by the dealer and 4 separate procedures on the engine to patch the problem, my engine was finally replaced by GM at 105,000 (about 750 hours). Patients and persistance won out for me this time.

It's difficult for this discussion to take place without letting emotions get in the way. By what criteria are you making the statement that an engine using oil isn't normal? The vehicles are equipped with a low oil level detection system, as well as the good old fashioned dip-stick. If engines truly never used oil why would they be necessary?

Having been a mechanic/technician since the mid 70's and having personally rebuilt hundreds of engines it's fair to say that I know a little more about them than the average person. I know when they need taken apart and repaired, and I also know when it's a waste of time and money and there has never been a greater waste of resources than I have seen take place when the reported problem is an oil consumption issue, and nothing else.

Let's play with a scenario. You have an engine using a quart of oil in 1000 miles. The oil costs $5.00 a quart. So in 100,000 miles you would spend $500 on oil that needed to be added. Attempting to repair that engine let's put the number at $2000, and lets say it's "successful" and now you only use one quart in 2500 miles. You'd still be spending $200 for replacement oil in the next 100,000 miles plus you have to figure the $2000 for the service work which means you spent $2200 to save $300. Now tell me how that is reasonable.

The only thing that is occurring here is many of the posters want this repair if and only if they can get someone else to pay for it. What you don't see as a "consumer" is you end up paying for all of this in the end because the manufacturer has to pass any costs of doing business right back onto their customers in one way or another. No matter how popular the solution may sound as in "they replaced myengine for free", it may have been free to you at the moment, but every other consumer actually had to chip in and pay for it.

As far as the routine to try and curb the engine oil use rate covered by the bulletins, I'll remind you that I am a professional mechanic and have access to every bulletin ever printed from every manufacturer. If you read the posts in nthei very forum you will find failure, after failure, after failure, to alleviate the concern when following those bulletins. This isn't the first, the only, nor will it be the last time any manufacturer deals with such reports. Trying to fix something that isn't broken results in no change in the vehicles operation. Replacing the engine can of course make a difference for a short time but typically the same neglect that set the stage for the first consumption issue is rarely corrected by an owners service habits and the new engine turns around and eventually suffers the same fate. Meanwhile someone who understands and accepts the situation rolls merrily along at a fraction of the cost of any of the repairs with a vehicle that serves them wonderfully as long as they care for it like they are supposed to.